Readings on phytoplankton and zooplankton
The readings assigned for this topic, available in pdf files under "Course
Documents," provide basic information on the life habits and major varieties
of floating plants and animals in the Bay system. The two readings from
the Environmental Atlas of the Potomac Estuary are most useful for their
general description of the different groups of phytoplankton and zooplankton
and the role of these groups within the estuarine ecosystem. The information
on spatial patterns in the Potomac and seasonal patterns of dominance for
different groups is not important for our purposes here - the information
is now more than 20 years old and we are not going to focus on the detailed
maps of the Potomac estuary anyway. The chapter by Sellner provides more
information on the spatial and temporal patterns of phytoplankton abundance
in the Bay; we will supplement this with some additional information in
class, but we will try very hard to focus mostly on the main trends. The
ecological dynamics of phytoplankton populations can get very complicated
and difficult to interpret, and we simply don't have the time to get very
far into that discussion. The chapter by Day and others provides additional
information on the ecology of estuarine zooplankton, but is not focused
on Chesapeake Bay. This too will be supplemented by some additional material
in class.
The readings from the Web provide a lot of pictures, basic information
on phytoplankton and zooplankton biology, and some online articles about
their role in the Bay. Look at some of the pages that will tell you about
major phytoplankton groups. The two most important, for us, will be diatoms
[Bacillariophyta] and dinoflagellates [Pyrrophyta], but you should know
at least a little bit about green algae [Chlorophyta] and blue-green algae
[Cyanobacteria], and also about zooplankton like copepods, ciliates, and
jellyfish. Jellyfish, including the ubiquitous sea nettles, are sometimes
referred to as gelatinous zooplankton, and their role in the food web may
be quite important. There are some good online articles about them.
One set of items from the web listings that is worth singling out: monitoring
data on phytoplankton, zooplankton, and primary production. The page on
Remote Sensing of Phytoplankton Blooms can provide digital images of chlorophyll
concentrations in the Bay for any of a series of dates. The DNR monitoring
station data on phytoplankton will show the annual pattern of abundance
for a series of stations in the Bay, broken down by major phytoplankton
group. When you look at both of these databases and compare what you see
in any given year with what the literature says about a "typical" annual
cycle, you may find that there are some discrepancies. In particular, is
it really true that the phytoplankton are dominated by a major spring bloom,
with a minimum in summer followed by a secondary bloom in the fall? The
data seem to show some other things going on and there are significant
differences from one year to another. There are also differences in patterns
between different monitoring stations.
Additional notes will be handed out in class identifying major spatial
and temporal trends in phytoplankton and zooplankton populations from Chesapeake
Bay.
1. Library reserve packet:
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Lippson, A.J., and others, 1979, Environmental Atlas
of the Potomac Estuary, Johns Hopkins University Press, ch. 5, "Phytoplankton
and other algae"
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Sellner, K.G., 1987, Phytoplankton in Chesapeake Bay: role in carbon, oxygen
and nutrient dynamics, in: Majumdar, S.K., Hall, L.W., Jr., and Austin,
H.M., eds., Contaminant Problems and Management of Living Chesapeake
Bay Resources, Pennsylvania Academy of Science, ch. 7.
-
Lippson, A.J., and others, 1979, Environmental Atlas
of the Potomac Estuary, Johns Hopkins University Press,
ch. 6, "Zooplankton"
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Day, J.W., Jr., Hall, C.A.S., Kemp, W.M., and Yanez-Arancibia,
A., 1989, Estuarine ecology, John Wiley & Sons, ch. 8, "Zooplankton,
the drifting consumers"
2. Pages from the World Wide Web:
Phytoplankton
Zooplankton